The videos and votes are all in! Here are the top videos in each category – judges will deliberate to select the winners.

For Category #1, General Issue Ads, the top videos were (in no particular order):

“I will not be silenced”, “Alyssa wants to be a Senator”, “A penn a day to keep corruption away”, “America’s Biggest Hypocrite”, “The Government We Created”, "Americans are fed up", “This is your country”, “Money Talks”, “Money Looms Over All”, “The Devil’s Making a Call”, "Money in politics = corruption", and “Get the Money Out 2”.

For Category #2, Candidate Specific Ads, the top videos were (in no particular order):

“William the K St. Lobbyist vs. Iowa”, “Aaron supports Staci”, “Upton’s World”, and “Help Candidate Carol Shea-Porter”.

Note: the 10 videos with the most votes as of the initial deadline of 5 p.m. ET October 16, 2014, as well as the 10 videos with the most votes after the 24-hour additional voting period, are included as finalists. Due to significant overlap, this resulted in 11 finalist entries for Category #1, each of which will be reviewed by the judges. Please contact info@mayday.us with any questions.

How the contest works

Inspired by MoveOn's "Bush in 30 seconds" video ad contest from a decade ago, we're asking citizens to create 30-second video ads that could be aired on national TV. Our all-star panel of judges – George Takei, Jason Alexander, Shepard Fairey, Zephyr Teachout, Marianne Williamson, Baratunde Thurston, Anna Galland and Cenk Uygur – will review the top entries and select the winners. 

We are excited to work on this contest in partnership with our friends at MoveOn.org, and with support from partners such as PCCC and Rootstrikers.

Judging Details

Videos will be evaluated by our Contest Committee using the following criteria:

• Does the video effectively communicate the MAYDAY message?
• Does the video make compelling the importance of money in politics?
• How creative is the video in delivering the concept/message?
• Does the video have the “x” factor that a true political ad would need to move the needle on the issue of money in politics?
• For videos in Category #2, candidate specific ads, does the video effectively support one of MAYDAY’s pro-reform candidates?

We have entrusted our esteemed panel of “Supreme Court” judges to evaluate these videos against these criteria to select the winning entry in each category. Best of luck to all of our entrants!